Home › Timeline › The Capture › Baghdad sacked; the House of Wisdom lost
In 1258 the Mongol prince Hülegü, grandson of Genghis Khan, took Baghdad, executed al-Musta'sim, the last Abbasid caliph, massacred a great part of its people and wrecked the dikes and headworks of the irrigation the city lived on; the toll is disputed, from about 200,000 in Hülegü's own letter to Louis IX to 800,000 or more in later Muslim sources. What remained of the House of Wisdom, the Abbasid royal library, was destroyed in the sack.
The mechanism
WAR
How it was checked
- EvidenceT5 INDEPENDENT SECULAR; Status: ADDED 2026-09-19
- Letter eraTHE CAPTURE 313 to 1302
- SourcesRECORD — Britannica, 'Hulegu'; Britannica, 'Baghdad: History'; Britannica, 'Bayt al-Hikmah' · checked 19 September: Britannica (read in a browser; WebFetch is refused by the site), 'Baghdad: History'; Britannica (read in a browser; WebFetch is refused by the site), 'Hulegu'; Britannica (read in a browser; WebFetch is refused by the site), 'Bayt al-Hikmah'; Wikipedia, 'Siege of Baghdad (1258)' (range of death-toll claims)